Shilshole Bay 2009-01-03

[Sockmonkey]

Saturday January 3, 2009

On a blustery wintery morning, CaptnJack brought me, CaseyB and Lauri (does she have an account on nwdc?) out on his RHIB Water Dog for a day of fun and diving. The wrecks chosen weren't glamorous but they also weren't cove2 and that's all that mattered.

After dumping the boat off the trailer, loading gear we headed out to the vertical barge near the entrance to the ship canal. From what Richard told us it seems that a few boats have sunk while tied up to the storm buoy which is right smack in the middle of a few dive sites. One of the wrecks is a gravel barge that is standing straight up on its long end. Somehow Richard set the hook right on top of the barge and from he says it was snagged only on a small bit of rust.

Richard and Lauri descended first with Casey and I right behind them. When I got down to about 12-16 feet a lightening bolt of pain stretched across my right eye into my ear. Signaling like mad to Casey I slowly ascended trying to clear. I did manage to see the top of the barge at about 35 feet. That means the vis was probably around 20 feet or more that day. After another trip to about 15 feet slowly I decided to just thumb the whole dive. Casey hung out at about 10-12 feet under me as I wasted some gas snorkeling around. The water temp was about 43 but the air felt much much colder. I ended up clipping myself off to the boat and floated around for the entire time the other two were under.

Thankfully the dive sites he chose were close to the marina so we zipped back (hooray for downwind on a cold day) still in our hoods and drygloves for a tank swap and pee break. With a hot beverage in us and a trip to the heated bathrooms we were off again.

We took a quick trip to the Dauntless where the other 3 spent about 35 or so mins of bottom time. I lounged around on the RHIB, wearing a shit eating grin in peace while drinking coffee and dipping my dry gloves into a cooler of hot water. The dive team reported that the wreck area was covered in gil nets with many a dead fish caught in them. Richard brought back a wad of rotted netting on principal.

The transit back to the boat ramp upwind was brisk, a little bouncy and totally fun for a 40 degree day not including wind chill. The day ended with burgers and beer at the The Deadliest Bar: The Lockspot.

While I only got about 6 mins of bottom time I was reminded of the classic expression about a bad day of diving.

Thanks again to Richard for getting us out of the house and in the water.

I whipped up this silly video that contains no underwater footage at all. Mostly it was a way for me to continue to learn iMovie (I hate you spatman)... as well as make Kalatin jealous. If you dig people's boring vacation slideshows please have a look. Audio transitions still ellude me however.

Video Slideshow

-Eric

[spatman]

you may hate me, but you are getting better at editing movies. all part of my evil plan.

looks like a good time was had by all. even you, monkey.

[Tom Nic]

Nice "Dive" Report... sort of. I wonder what happened underwater?

Thanks for telling the story!

[Sockmonkey]

I wonder what happened underwater?

Me too dude... me too

-Eric

[Kalatin]

Eric,
Ear problems are what you get for trying to make me feel bad for missing the day to my own ear issues. Karma is a bitch. One of these days we are going to go diving again.
Fun video. Thanks for posting it.
Kate

[ldevore]

Eric - what a fun video! Thanks for making it and passing it on! Are you sure you want to go to Hawaii??? It looks like you could have a great videographic career in the PNW - we just need to get you underwater for the exciting shots!

[LCF]

Eric, losing you to Hawaii is losing a great entertainment resource for Puget Sound Diving -- I laughed myself silly watching that video, especially the part where you don't help anybody onto the boat because you're taking pictures. (Reminded me PAINFULLY of my husband, whose take is that there is always somebody else who can help, but he is the only one with the camera . . . )

Sorry Nottie couldn't join you guys. Given a couple more days of warm (is 40 warm?) weather, we may actually be able to get her out of her parking space . . .

[CaptnJack]

Hah that was funny!! Thanks for posting

[Mattleycrue76]

Looks like you guys had a good time. The only time I was out there we dove the wreck of the Omar which is I think only a couple hundred feet away or so. Really fun dive. We wanted to try and make it to the barges but were running low on air and no deco time so we didn't try.